Saturday, Feb 02, 2008 at 12:23
(excerpt from my website story BOGGED)
Kevin called me up and said, “ Why don’t you come along?”
The Toyota Club were going camping at Depot Creek Falls on the Saturday night. I had been in there on other occasions and knew the area and Kevin was glad to have us along.
Depot Creek crosses the Stuart Highway a few kilometres south of the Hayes Creek Pub. It is a wet-season creek, which runs into the Douglas River. On its way it tumbles over a series of rapids and over a long
flat rock. At the height of its flood one can sit on the rock and slide down it for about 10 metres before dropping down into a large pool. In the dry season there is only a trickle of water seeping out from beneath the rocks.
When we got to the turn off a wall of 2 metre high spear grass was there to meet us. Kevin was the trip leader for the day and was about to set off in the wrong direction when I chipped in over the radio that it would be prudent to go another way. Kevin, in front of all his club members suddenly appointed me trip leader and I did not even belong to the club!
This time around we had a Toyota Bundera. It was quite versatile in the bush with a limited slip differential. I had a PTO winch fitted as well. It was however, the top of the range model, dressed in silver duco with green flashings, chrome bulbar and a sunroof and it was soon to get some scatched duco.
We set off pushing the tall grass down and driving blind, following the contour lines, my compass bearing and a bit of intuition. Fallen trees, old logs and hidden rocks blocked our way from time to time. I headed in the general direction of the falls. Another member of the convoy was into Bush Orienteering, and volunteered to run ahead looking for the best track to take. This helped. At one stage a side mirror was knocked off its perch on the door of our vehicle and Judith got quite annoyed with me as we had only recently purchased the yota.
Slowly but surely we inched our way along the ridge and then dropping down the valley towards the falls. There did not seem to be an ideal shady camping place and Kevin and I drove on a bit further amongst the paperbarks. We instructed everyone to wait, albeit in the sun.
Very soon both our vehicles had sunk in the soft mud and were resting on the chassis rails. Another club member had followed us in and had become bogged as well. He found a tree to anchor off but then his winch short-circuited and burnt out. Profanities streamed over the airwaves as this bloke blamed me for his predicament. Kevin managed to extricate himself and then pulled the other vehicle out and they promptly drove off, leaving us on to fend for ourselves.
I ran the winch cable out to a
young tree but it soon let go and toppled over. Then I tried another, and another, and another. I saw this sizeable tree, which was within reach and wrapped the tree protector around it and started winching. It looked like we were on a winner this time. Meanwhile I had trampled the mud around the vehicle into mush. It was oozing over the side steps and ever time one opened the door, the mud was pushed aside. The winch cable was creaking from the strain. All of a sudden I saw this large tree come toppling over towards us. For a brief moment I thought that it was going fall on our truck but it fell to the side only metres away. Some of the branches however came down resting on the engine hood. Judith grabbed the floor mats and put them under the scratching tree limbs. We had to think of another strategy as we could now only winch to our left unless we chainsawed the fallen tree. I found another large tree within the cable reach but at right angles to the truck. Once we had the cable and snatch block attached we slowly winched the truck around and after almost two hours we were back on firm ground.
The club had set up camp and the blokes were having a few beers when Judith sailed into them and told them what a bunch of cowards they were by not coming to help us. We set up camp away from the club, as it was the only place left. That night the
campfire was quiet and in the morning the club members packed up and left without so much as to say goodbye. Bastards!
We spent the day by a small wet season waterfall and while Judith painted I scraped the mud out from under the truck and did some other minor repair jobs. Later in the day the wind changed and I heard vehicles struggling under load. I put my boots on and went for a walk. I found the club about one kilometre from our campsite, trying to winch up this
hill. They had taken a wrong line and were winching the vehicles at an angle up a
hill. In four hours they had progressed one and a half kilometres. I laughed, told them they were nuts and went back to camp.
The following morning we packed up and drove out of the valley. At the top I noticed wheel tracks heading east and knowing that this would leads to a swampy area, I made new tracks along a ridge and within half an hour we were back at the Stuart Highway.
The club had made the tracks to the east and had ventured in to the swamp. It was Tuesday before they arrived back in
Darwin!
Cheers
AnswerID:
285101
Follow Up By: Member - Axle - Saturday, Feb 02, 2008 at 23:09
Saturday, Feb 02, 2008 at 23:09
Jeezus Christ Willem!!!!, Why did i not see a book at the local book
shop, which swmbo navigates every day, in regard to your fun and games!!!!..
Cheers Axle.
FollowupID:
550051